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The June meeting of the RANV club will be at the State Police Barracks in Williston. Address is 2777 St George Road. The barracks is just above I-89 Exit 12 on Route 2A. Bob W4YFJ will discuss the E-911 system in Vermont and give a tour of the dispatch center.
When you get to the barracks, come to the door next to the garage doors. Ring the bell if no one is at the door and tell them you’re there for the ham radio tour. Inside, the conference room is on the second floor immediately at the top of the stairs. Bob’s pretty good a marking things, so we probably won’t lose too many of you. But...hey! 911 can quickly dispatch someone to do a search and rescue, so no fear!
After the tour, we’ll meet back at the conference room for snacks and to discuss the last minute details in preparation for Field Day 2010.
The 2010 edition of Field Day is near. The dates this year are June 26th and 27th. We start our setup on Friday afternoon and can use lots of people to help with lots of things.
I am looking for help for one aspect of the weekend in particular: the GOTA operation. For those who don’t know, GOTA is “Get on the Air.” This is one of the operating stations at Field Day. No experience is needed to operate here. Anyone licensed in the past year, any level, anyone who holds a Technician license, or anyone who is considered to be “inactive” is eligible to operate. Even those who do not have a license can operate! The purpose of the GOTA station is to give those who haven’t had on-air experience the chance to do so. You don’t even need to know how! There will be a mentor there to help. There is no pressure to make hundreds of contacts, but there are bonuses for every 20 contacts each operator makes. Will anyone make 100 or more contacts this year? For the last few years, the GOTA station has met its goal of at least 500 contacts. Let’s do it again this year! Please let me know as soon as possible your plans so a schedule can be put together. We want to give everyone a chance, and if everyone shows up at the same time, this gets to be difficult.
I’m also looking for some mentors who can help out with the new operators. We also get extra credit for having under 18 year old operators make at least one contact. Get together with your friends and make plans for Field Day.
United States Border Patrol: Paul AA1SU got the idea for the May meeting when he noticed a border patrol building with an impressive assortment of antennas on its roof. Four people from the U.S. Border Patrol came to our May club meeting to tell us about their equipment and their work. The visitors were Lucas Hursey, Mark Pynduss KB1EWA , Stephen Fuller, and Mike Raymond N1IRN.
The Border Patrol has three main nets of linked VHF repeaters. The nets cover the Canadian Border from somewhere in New York to Maine. The communications are digital and encrypted. There is a separate net for data. They can also use U.S. Customs radio nets. There is a communication center in Florida, as well.
The border is monitored by live video, remote video, thermal imaging, and motion sensing detectors. Remote video means that the device “phones home” when it has an image or video clip to send. Though some of the devices are linked to the Internet, others are battery powered with small transmitters. Sensor batteries last for a year.
The original devices had small tape recorders that would transmit voice messages like “Whiskey 4 has detected motion.” Later, devices sent a synthesized voice, while the current generation sends digital data. The Border Patrol has become pretty good at distinguishing people from animals.
Each agent has a $4500 hand-held Motorola radio for encrypted digital communications. Stephen gave us a quick demonstration, working a repeater on Jay Peak with very good sound quality. The radios have over-the-air rekeying. When the net’s encryption key changes, each radio can be easily updated. However, any lost radio would soon become unusable.
The men feel that border security is “pretty good.” They get good cooperation from the Canadian border patrol. The U.S. Border Patrol can hear the Canadians’ sensors, and they can hear ours. If our Border Patrol detects someone crossing into Canada, they notify the Canadians and vice versa. The border does not have wide forbidden areas that keep people away. In fact, there are some homes and other buildings which actually straddle the border!
The next meeting will be at the Vermont State Police barracks in Williston. I will bring donuts! Field Day will be the weekend of June 26th.
As I write this I’m falling asleep, not because this is boring or anything but because the place I work for has gone into overdrive mode for a while and for that reason this will be short and sweet (this is where the newsletter editors groan, rub their temples and start looking for more copy).
It is almost June, Field Day month, and I’m looking forward to it even if I can’t attend all of it due to work (see above). The plans are being made, the antennas and gear is coming out and being tested as you read this.
Please do all you can for this event, as it is the premier test of emergency field operations there is and is a lot of fun. Did I mention that RANV frequently scores in the top ten stations nationwide in the 2A entry category (2A has the largest number of entries), and has won in 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2008! There is opportunity to operate if you are a contester type (contact W1SJ), or a relatively inactive ham (contact AB1DD), or you want to take a chance with 6 meter at the VHF station (contact KB1FRW).
We setup three main operating areas with four 50-foot towers and antennas, three tents including a 32' x 16' unit for GOTA and VHF. We need setup and tear down help plus some one with a pickup truck to move things Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon (contact the above call signs to help); all jobs are important and make the whole event work. Anyone want to take care of the food?
This all takes place June 25th-27th at the site on Redmond Road in Williston. Come visit even if you can’t help out and be sure to get on VHF and HF and give us a contact. We are usually right near the VHF calling frequencies and will move to any band you have.
As you read this I am winding down from the Essex Memorial Day parade which was huge this year (35-40% bigger than last year) and we really needed more help. You should have seen me trying to be at both ends of my division at the same time, boy my feet hurt!
Tomorrow is the Vermont City Marathon, the biggest athletic event in the state. This involves 40 hams and I can tell you that, considering the stress these runners put their bodies, we serve a critical function in providing health and welfare for them.
I’m tired, and nodding off, so I’ll let you move on to the next article and maybe next month I will remember to tell you about my adventures getting and putting up a 40 meter rotatable dipole. I had to do it twice to get it right.
Meet at the Ground Round on Williston Road on the 3rd Tuesday, at 6:30. Help us plan meetings and discuss club issues and upcoming events that might need to be presented to the membership.
For more info and details visit www.ranv.org/fd.html.
We work very, very few amateurs in the local area and would like to increase this number. In particular, we especially need local VHF contacts on our QRP solar powered station. All QSO's with us qualify you for the coveted W1NVT QSL card!
While it is fresh in your minds, please provide comments on how the Marathon worked.
1. Marathon Net (things we can control): Good things, bad things.
2. Marathon in General (things we cannot control, but can make some noise about).
We do provide feedback to VCM and they do take what we say seriously, so this is a valuable part of the job!
Contact Mitch via the VCM Radio website‘s e-mail link to leave your feedback.
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